Unexpected
by Agent Malkere
Summary: He's not not as weak as his classmates thought... boy are they in for a surprise! [as if PP never happened. some DxS]
1. Chapter 1

_**Unexpected **_

_Agent Malkere _

**Disclaimer: Nope, Danny Phantom does not belong to me, otherwise Phantom Planet would have gone slightly differently. **

_A/N: When reading this pretend that PP never happened. I guess that makes this AU doesn't it? This is going to be a short multi-chapter. Oh, and to anyone out there who's also read my other DP fanfic _Intangible Tears_ – yes, y'all have convinced me to do a sequel! I just need to come up with an idea now:P _

_Now, with out further ado, on to the story! _

_**Chapter 1**_

"I hate gym class."

"It wasn't _that_ bad today, Tucker."

"Yeah," laughed Danny, "It was worse!"

Sam rolled her eyes and mock glared up at her blue eyed boyfriend as they trudged across the soccer fields back towards Casper High. Yes, she had to glare _up_. At seventeen, Danny Fenton (while he was still extremely wiry and lean) towered over nearly everyone in the school, including Dash, though the football jock still considered him a dweeb and his personal punching bag which Danny played along with. It was easier to let the other students and the teachers continue stereotyping him as a weak 'loser' instead of asserting himself as the well honed, graceful, mature fighter he had become over the last three years of almost daily ghost fighting and hunting. Albeit, when Dash every now and then attempted to shove him into a locker for old time's sake (even though Danny didn't fit any more), Danny had a hard time keeping his reflexes in check. People only saw what they wanted to see in him – namely 'harmless' instead of 'Danny Phantom.' Being both at once a city hero/enemy (though only a few people really considered him a threat any more) and a social outcast when he apparently had his own 'Phan' club was a very interesting experience and one he and his friends had become use to.

Grinning to herself, Sam tuned out Tucker's continued loud complaints, glancing around and wrinkling her nose as several other guys in the class pulled off their shirts in both attempts to cool off and show off – and not _all _of them had anything to show off.

_Oh, god, my eyes!!! Make him put his shirt back on! Somebody __**please**__ make that guy put his shirt back on!!!_ Sam was distracted from her retinal agony by a movement to her right as Danny, without really realizing what he was doing, began to pull his own sweat soaked shirt off over his head. She raised an eyebrow at this peculiar behavior from the half ghost. This was an unusual, actually unprecedented, occurrence since he had started ghost hunting or… well… ever. With good reason, too. It sort of blew Danny's 'weak wimp' and 'harmless' façade to hell. And it would bring up too many questions, too.

"So, what's the occasion, Danny? Is it my birthday or something?" the Goth girl asked with a grin, wondering how long it was going to take for someone else to notice.

Not long, as it turned out. Danny didn't even have a chance to respond to Sam's quip before Star, who had been walking backward to talk to Paulina, stopped mid sentence with her jaw hanging open. Another unprecedented event in fact, since Star was a notorious motor mouth and nothing short of several pieces of duct tape could usually shut her up. Paulina, noticing her follower's lack of focus, quickly took offence.

"What are you looking at? You're supposed to be paying attention to me!" Star simply raised a hand and pointed at Danny. "What? Is it the ghost boy?" asked Paullina turning around eagerly. After nearly three years, Paulina Sanchez was still the president of the Danny Phantom 'Phan' Club. Sam covered her mouth with one hand to prevent her smirk from showing through. She found it incredibly funny that the Casper High 'Queen of the Social Ladder' (though Sam had other less polite terms for her which would probably burn any page they were written on) was actually right about something for once. And had no clue that she was.

Both girls were openly staring now and because _Paulina_ was staring ninety-four percent of the female students of the class, along with about fifty percent of the males, were also staring at the boy, who until a minute ago had been considered athletically hopeless and to lead a boring life. A number of girls could even have said to be drooling – not that Sam could blame them. His chest and abs had just as much, if not more, definition and tone as the jocks on any of the high school sports teams but without any over muscling. Danny looked like he was built aerodynamically for speed, which of course he was.

_Surprise! _Sam thought to herself, adding smugly and somewhat possessively, _**My**__ boyfriend!_ before nudging Danny gently in the ribs to get his attention once more (as he had returned to his conversation with Tucker after telling that her birthday had indeed been rescheduled especially for the purpose of having it set on an unusually hot gym class day).

"Hey, Danny, guess what?"

"What?"

"You are now officially the center of attention."

He blink in confusion and then glanced around and then back down at the gym shirt draped casually over his arm. With a slight nervous laugh, he gave her a rather sheepish look.

"Oops."

"Oops is right. There goes that cover story," stated Tucker.

"Yeah… hey, at least I managed to pull this off until senior year and it's not like I went ghost or anything." Sam rolled her eyes. That was Danny, ever the optimist, or he was nine out of ten times.

"Yup. Don't look now but I think Paulina has started drooling, too, which means Dash should be here any second to try and beat you up or maybe just humiliate you."

"After this little demonstration, I think he'll just go for the humiliation," Tucker muttered as he dug in his pocket for his precious PDA. Only Tucker would bring a PDA to gym class. Danny groaned in disgust at Sam's mention of the social queen bee.

"You know, you would have been overjoyed if she'd reacted like that when we were freshmen."

"Yeah, but that was then and this is now. She's as shallow as a puddle, besides which, I'm in love with you, remember?"

"I remember." _But it's always nice to hear no matter how many times you say it! _

"I hate to cut short you two lovebirds' mush talk," interrupted Tucker, rolling his eyes but in actuality happy that his friends were still head over heals for each other after nearly two years of a steady relationship, "but it looks like Dash is arriving right on schedule."

Sure enough, Dash in all his anticlimactic blonde crew cut and broad shouldered glory was headed strait for Danny looking like he was going to attempt to tackle the half ghost football style. Not the most subtle approach but after years and years of playing contact sports Dash didn't have enough brain cells left to understand the concept of subtle. In other words he was the perfect match for Paulina, since she'd lost all of her brain cells shopping. Something about Danny's stance though must have penetrated to those few remaining survival instincts that the jock had and in an unusual display of forethought he slowed down, stopping before he could crash into the taller, shirtless teen. Well, since direct frontal assault now seemed out of the question, Dash's mind went strait to option two, the only other option it was capable of: teasing and humiliation. And today it looked like he had something new to harp on.

"Hey, Fen-toni, what happened? You get attacked by a weedwacker?"

Sam flinched and did her best to hide a grimace. She knew exactly what Dash was talking about – the other physical side effects if her boyfriend's double life – the scars. They littered his torso and shoulders most noticeably, all faint (or not so faint in some cases), silvery reminders of how dangerous ghost fighting really was. There had been a couple of awkward trips to the emergency room of the local hospital in the past three years and many more incidents where he had nearly needed to go.

Danny, however, didn't even bat an eye at this remark, instead pretending he was exchanging witty banter with Skulker even if Dash probably couldn't have exchanged witty banter if his life depended on it. Not that Skulker was particularly good at it either….

"Why, yes, how did you ever guess? It possessed and trying to eat my older sister at the time." Okay, so maybe it was more sarcastic banter than witty but Danny wasn't really in the mood for things like bad puns at the moment. This was enough however because, as it turned out, Dash's limited brain supply wasn't capable of dealing with sarcasm and simply shut down leaving the jock stumped as to how to respond. Mr. Lancer interrupted before Dash could get past his mental stalemate.

"_Antony and Cleopatra _people! What's going on here? And Mr. Fenton, put your shirt back on." There were several disappointed mumbles and protests from various girls as Danny complied.

"How come he never looked like that when _I_ went out with him?" Sam couldn't help but feel pleased when she heard Valerie mutter that. Yeah, it wasn't good that the blue eyed teen's harmless charade was over but Sam felt she had every right to enjoy the silver lining after having to listen to all of the putdowns from Paulina and Dash and the others for all these years. Now, for once, the tables were turned and the raven haired girl was intending on basking in every second of it they got.

"Mr. Fenton, see me after class in my office."

Danny all but groaned.

"Yes, sir."

"And Mr. Baxter, picking fights during gym class is not considered a form of exercise. You'll be writing a three page essay on how violence does not solve problems during your detention today."

"But that freak started it!" protested Dash lamely, unable to come up with a quick, more plausible excuse.

"No he didn't!" To the general surprise of everyone it was Paulina who latched onto Dash's arm and started dragging the jock away, whining at him all the while (they were surprised about the dragging – not the whining). "You shouldn't try to pick on Danny like that! Especially when it's so obvious that he could beat you up if he really wanted to! It makes you look dumb and makes me wonder why you're my boyfriend!"

"Somehow, I get the feeling that that little speech isn't going to help me that much," muttered Danny, half to himself, half to his friends.

"Hey, things _could_ be worse." Sam looked at him over the top of the sunglasses she was wearing.

"_Sam!_ Don't _say_ that!"

"Oh, come on, Danny! Don't be so superstitious," the Goth teased.

"Last time you said that Skulker, Ember, _and_ the Box Ghost all showed up at the same time and it took me FOUR HOURS to hunt them all down, plus another hour to get out of the city landfill and home after passing out from exhaustion in a garbage dumpster! So, yeah, I think I have every right to feel a little edgy when you say things like that!"

"Okay, okay, calm down."

"Besides you have much more important things to be worrying about than the Box Ghost showing up again – like how you're going to explain that lovely scar collection of yours to Mr. Lancer and the school nurse!"

"Tucker!" Sam snapped. "Not helping! …He is right though, you know."

The half ghost glanced sideways at her with a dejected sigh and let his shoulders slump slightly as he began to trudge in the direction of the locker rooms once more.

"Yeah, I know, but what am I supposed to say?" He put on a sarcastically cheerful voice, "You see, Mr. Lancer, it's because I'm half ghost and combat ghosts on an almost daily basis along with my periodically homicidal ex-girlfriend who likes my human half just find but blames the other side of me for ruining her life. In fact, in the Ghost Zone they're practically fighting to get a chance to take a chunk out of me! But other than that I'm just your average high schooler!"

"Dude, _I'd_ send you home in a straightjacket after an explanation like that even though I _know_ it's true."

"Got any more _exceedingly _helpful comments, Tucker?" asked Sam.

"No, not yet, they haven't finished uploading on my PDA."

"Good, then shut up until we get to lunch or until you can come up with a _useful_ idea!"

"Hmph!" Tucker turned away from Sam and directed his next comment to the object in his hand. "Nobody understands me but you, precious," he cooed. His gothic friend scrunched up her face in annoyance.

"I never thought I'd say this to anyone but you _really _need to get a girlfriend."

"I'm already in a relationship."

"Tucker! Your PDA doesn't count!"

Danny laughed at his two bickering friends but then his thoughts returned once more to the situation at hand. What was he going to say to Mr. Lancer? If he didn't come up with a good enough explanation the school would call home and then what would he say to his parents? Well, it was more a worry of what he would say to his mom. His dad's mind basically consisted of two tracks: track one – 'fudge,' track two – 'ghosts' with the occasional 'Vladdy!' detour but that pertained to ghosts as well in a sort of roundabout way. In other words, more or less no worries there. His mom on the other hand….

"Good luck," Sam interrupted his thoughts as she began to veer off in the direction of the girls' lockers. "I'll be waiting by your locker to hear how it went."

"See ya."

--

_A/N: Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed this first chapter!_


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed! I luf y'all and you inspired to update… really quickly… O.O This is the fastest I've updated anything in _ages_! It makes me happy! Now, on with the story! Enjoy! _

_**Chapter 2**_

"Still alive, I see," observed Sam when her boyfriend finally arrived at his locker nearly fifteen minutes later. "So how'd it go with Lancer? Did he call your parents?"

"Nope."

"Really?" she asked in disbelief and a little shock.

"Yeah, I guess he didn't notice after all. I just got a really long lecture about exerting myself more during gym class." Danny grinned.

"Well that's a relief."

"Yeah. Where's Tucker? I thought he'd be standing here complaining about how late to lunch we're going to be."

The dark haired girl rolled her eyes.

"He already left for the cafeteria to commiserate about cruel, close-minded Goths with his precious PDA."

"Ah, that explains it."

"But see? Despite what I said –"

"_Sam_- Ah, nuts!" A thin stream of pale blue vapor trailed out of the halfa's mouth as he groaned.

"Well-"

"Don't even _think_ it, Sam!"

"Hey, Fen-turd!"

"Oh, great!" he mumbled turning towards Dash who was striding purposefully down the hall looking as mad as hell. Danny turned around to face him without even thinking about what he was doing. "Listen Dash, I know you're mad but I really don't have time to deal with you right now. So, if could just stay right here I'll get back to you as soon as I'm done." With that he picked up Dash, who was too shocked to protest or fight back and placed the blonde jock in his open locker. Sam gaped at her boyfriend as he shut his locker door on a very surprised looking football player before turning very calmly back to her.

"Um, Danny, you do realize what you just did, don't you?"

"Huh?"

"You just locked _Dash Baxter_ in your locker." He blinked several times looking almost as surprised as the football player had. The metal door rattled as Dash began to pound on it.

"Let me out of here, you loser, so I can rip your sorry guts out!!!"

"Er, so I did. Um, could you-?"

"Yes, go! I've got it covered here!"

"Thanks, Sam! You're the best!" He leaned down and grabbed his books and lunch sack then headed quickly down the hall to find an inconspicuous place to go ghost.

"Don't I know it; now hurry up so you don't miss all the rest of lunch!" she called after him as she headed in the opposite direction to find Tucker and fill him in on what was going on.

--

Over the years Danny had become more adept at the initial tracking down of ghosts and sneaking up on them. It was nice every once in a while to be able to just suck an unsuspecting ghost into a Fenton Thermos without actually having to fight it. Unfortunately today wasn't going to be one of those times. The halfa hovered a few feet above the roof of the school, arms crossed, one eyebrow raised at the scene before him looking distinctly unimpressed. Yup, he was going to end up missing at least half of his trigonometry class this time, if not all of it… again. Jeeze, he'd actually had a chance to do his homework last night, too!

Skulker, the Ghost Zone's self proclaimed greatest hunter, sat on the edge of the roof with a fishing rod in one mechanical hand. Tied to the end of the glowing blue line as bait was the ever annoying Box Ghost, who it seemed had been deemed yet again unworthy of Skulker's mantle. The hunter was patiently reeling the packaging obsessed ghost up and down into the outdoor cafeteria area though none of the Casper High students eating there seemed to have noticed yet.

"Whatcha after, Skulker? A shipping discount?"

"Ah, ghost child, I was wondering when you were going to say something." Box Ghost and fishing rod were deposited on the roof as Skulker stood up. Danny felt like moaning. Wonderful, it looked like the hunter's armor had gotten some more upgrades from Technus. Well, there went the rest of the school day. How was it that Skulker _always_ managed to arrive ready to do battle at the most inopportune moments?

Charging an ectoblast in one hand Danny prepared himself, waiting for Skulker to make the first move. He didn't have long to wait. Skulker's normal feral grin widened as a rocket launcher popped up and clicked onto his shoulder then fired his first missile. The half ghost dodged but wasn't surprised in the least when the ghostly rocket stopped in mid air and made sharp turn before charging at him again.

_Great, it's locked onto my ectoplasmic signature. I have __**got**__ to find a way to stop Skulker and Technus working with together. Why did they have to go and form an alliance anyway? They used to hate each other! _His train of thought was derailed as the weapon came dangerously close to hitting him, managing to graze the teen's shoulder ripping the fabric of his uniform and causing a thin stream of green and red ectoplasm and blood to start trickling down his bicep. Caught unprepared this time the momentum and angle of the hit sent Danny's body corkscrewing over the edge of the roof into the Casper High lunch area. His back crashed painfully into a thankfully empty table effectively breaking it in half (the table, not his back). The chattering of the eating students came to an abrupt halt and all eyes turned to stare at him. There were a couple of heartbeats of dead silence as the other teenagers blinked at him as if trying to get used to the idea that the locally famous Danny Phantom had just fallen out of the sky and broken one of their lunch tables in two. All hell broke loose though as Danny, still slightly dazed from his painful impact with the wooden boards and the ground, too late tried to dodge out of the path of Skulker's missile.

He bit back the scream of pain as it collided with his shoulder. It hadn't been a very large rocket, which was why the halfa still had a left arm and shoulder attached to his body to call his own, but with Skulker and Technus involved small didn't mean anything. Who knew what hideous chemicals or poisons they'd put in this one this time. At least it hadn't impacted him full in the chest. The whine of rocket jets announced Skulker's arrival on the scene. All around the two ghosts there was chaos as students either ran around in a panic or whipped out their camera phones attempting to get a picture of this latest ghost fight. Those who were attempting to be amateur photographers would try to sell their pictures later to the local newspaper and if the paper wouldn't buy it then it was almost guaranteed that – as long it had Danny Phantom in it – Paulina Sanchez would. Sometimes she paid better than the newspaper people, too.

The pandemonium continued for another fifteen minutes before Valerie joined the fray as well in her ghost huntress suit. She lasted better than normal against Skulker – Danny wasn't the only one who had improved over the last three years – and would have continued to last if, after only half an hour of fighting, one of the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter's paralyzer darts hadn't caught her directly between the shoulder blades. Unable to steer her board Val crashed into the base of a tree and though she only sustained some bad bruises and scraps the damage to her suit and board was enough that five minutes later when the paralyzation wore off she was still out of the fight. And Danny had a feeling that if he didn't end this soon he'd be out of it too and would become the latest addition to the collection of wall hangings and throw rugs in Skulker's layer. Desperate times called for desperate measures and last resorts. Now if he could just get Skulker away from all of these people so that nobody would accidentally get hurt….

--

Valerie limped out from behind the tree just in time to witness Phantom go hurtling through the fence that enclosed the lunch area with Skulker close on his heels. She, along with all of the other students, rushed to the fence to get a better view of what was going on but none of them dared to go outside the safety of the barrier. Okay, so maybe 'safety' wasn't the right word. It was chain-link for pity's sake! What good was a _chain-link fence _going to be against _Skulker_? But still, it made them all feel better to be behind _something_ instead of standing wide out in the open.

Bodies from behind pushed against Valerie, effectively pinning her to the fence but at least she could see. The ghost boy had pulled himself to his feet once more and braced his legs as Skulker landed so that Phantom now stood between the students and the ghost hunter.

"Ready to give in and take your place on my mantle, whelp?"

"Not nearly!" Phantom appeared to take a deep breath in and before anybody knew what was happening somebody who sounded an awful lot like Sam Manson yelled,

"Everybody, COVER YOUR EARS!!!"

All that could quickly and automatically complied (it was always best, they had learned, when dealing with Phantom to follow shouted orders and not ask too many questions), but Valerie's arms were pinned to her sides almost and she wasn't able to move her hands quickly enough so the huntress was temporarily exposed to the full effect of what came next.

In all of her three years of fighting Phantom and other ghosts, Valerie had never seen or heard anything like it. She'd never _realized_ that Phantom could have _that much power_, especially when the ghost boy had looked ready to collapse only a moment before. It was terrifying even to think of what he might be capable of when fully rested. The sound itself made her feel like ice water was being dripped into her very soul and she almost cried out even after years of becoming hardened to physical pain. Not only did it hurt, even from behind the ghost, the sound was _visible_,too. Green rings of sound emanated from Phantom's mouth and expanded outward destroying nearly everything not nailed down in its path. This was going to give her nightmares for weeks with all of the possibilities of what could have happened if Phantom had used this power during one of _their_ fights. Valerie could easily have been killed.

"_I don't want to hurt you!"_ she heard Phantom's voice repeat that phrase over and over again in her memories of a hundred battles. Maybe he had actually been telling the truth… but, no, she automatically squashed that idea. He had destroyed her life in the first place along with her first ghost hunting suit and she wasn't about to forget things like the time that he kidnapped the mayor! Other people may have forgiven him for his past actions but the young huntress wasn't about to do that. She was known for holding grudges for a very long time.

On the other side of the fence Skulker finally was blasted backward under the on slot of Phantom's voice and crashed into a wall, effectively mangling part of his mechanical suit. The ghost boy's voice faded and he pulled around the thermos that was strapped to his back and fired it, vacuuming up Skulker at last with ease. He stood very stiff and straight for a moment before he started to sway back and forth and collapse himself. Out of the corner of her eye Valerie saw someone dressed almost all in black vault the chain-link fence and sprint towards the falling ghost, catching him just before his head could hit the hard, black pavement. His neon green eyes cracked open to look up the girl (Sam, Valerie suddenly realized) who was gently supporting his head. He smiled faintly and gave her a thumbs up before whispering something as his eyes slipped closed once more and then his body went limp. A ring of slightly crackling, white power materialized around Phantom's waist. Valerie raised an eyebrow wondering if this was some new ghost power he had acquired. Then her face drained of all color.

_No… it can't be… it's got to be some sort of trick._

The same shocked and confused silence that had descended on the students when Phantom had first appeared out of nowhere and broken a lunch table in half enveloped the on looking crowd of teenagers once more. The unconscious boy lying beaten and bloody in Sam Manson's arms wasn't the famous Danny Phantom any more. Gone was his trademark black and white jumpsuit replaced by all too familiar faded blue jeans, red sneakers, and a white and red t-shirt. His bright white hair darkened to raven black; his unnaturally pale skin took on a more life-like hue. And if his eyes had been open everyone knew that they would have been sky blue instead of neon green.

Valerie felt like she was going to throw up. _Oh god…._


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: WOW!!! Thank you all so much for your reviews! And, now, on with the story! _

_**Chapter 3 **_

Sam held Danny gently as she watched the familiar white rings travel up and down his body transforming him back into his human form. The silence was deafening, especially after Danny using his ghostly wail. They'd known something like this would happen eventually… but still… she wasn't sure how the other students were going to react to this. As if in answer to the Goth's unspoken question, the silence was suddenly, painfully ruptured.

"NOOO!!! HE ALREADY HAS A _GIRLFRIEND!!!_" Well of all the things Sam expecting to hear first that had _not_ been one of them. Paulina's horrified screech was probably heard half way across the globe and a good ways into the Ghost Zone, too, it was so loud and piercing. Danny stirred, mumbling, "Sam, what the heck did you do to my alarm clock?" but didn't wake up.

Tucker, who had been trapped at the back of the crowd, finally managed to shove his way through, hop the fence, and come to his best friend's aid. As the soles of his shoes touched the pavement confused, shouting chaos finally broke out once more. Students pressed forward harder against the fence trying to get a better look, unable to believe what they had just witnessed. Half formed questions shot back and forth through the air like the bullets of a firefight and theories and ideas spread through the crowd faster than bush fire. Mouths chattered and brains whirred as each person tried to explain to themselves how the impossible could have happened right before their eyes.

In his rush to reach Danny, Tucker didn't notice the second figure who had hurtled over the fence after him. Sliding to a stop next to his two best friends the techno-geek took in the half-ghost's battered appearance. Tucker was no Sam when it came to medical issues, but at a glance he'd say, heavy bandaging necessary, but no concussion and no trip to the ER needed. Sometimes Danny having such a hard head really paid off – like in the fact that the halfa seemed impossible to concuss.

--

It felt like somebody was repeatedly bashing his head against an anvil. Danny subconsciously groaned as bright light assaulted him through his eyes lids. Actually, this feeling sort of reminded him of waking up after defeating the ghost king… he hadn't been fighting the ghost king again had he? The events leading up to him waking up were still blurry and vague in his mind, except for the fact that he'd been in a ghost fight – no big surprise there – and the halfa was _fairly_ sure that he had won… though he could be wrong. Usually he didn't wake up with such a throbbing headache after he had won.

Cracking his eyes open ever so slightly, Danny squinted against the intensified light waiting patiently until he could get a look at his surroundings without burning his retinas. He could feel gentle fingers running soothingly through his hair and cold, hard cement underneath of his legs. So… he was still outside? Where? Eyes finally adjusting to the light Danny opened them a little farther and took a peek at what he could see of his surroundings.

_Worried Sam… clouds… clouds… clouds… angry Valerie with an ecto gun… Tucker… clouds… clou- WAIT!!! Angry Valerie with an ecto gun?!?_ His eyes shot open the rest of the way and the halfa jerked upright, or, at least… he tried to. _Oh… pain. Bad idea. Very bad idea._

"Calm down, Danny. You need to stay still." Sam's voice was soothing, but rather hard to hear. There seemed to be pandemonium going on in the background. He wondered dimly what was going on. His mind, which was refusing to focus properly, kept telling him that there was an extremely obvious answer to that question but he just couldn't quite grasp what it was. Maybe it had something to do with why Val was being so unusually quiet. Just as he thought this Valerie opened her mouth and took in a deep breath – it looked like she was about to start shouting. Ah, Danny didn't think she could stay that angry _and_ quiet for very long. It just wasn't in her nature.

"Okay, you've got ten seconds to explain what the HECK is going on here so you'd better start talking!!!" snarled the ghost huntress, but without her normal level of ferocity. Actually, the barrel of her blaster was trembling as was the rest of her arm. She bit her lip as if she might burst into tears at any second – very un-Valerie.

Danny tipped his head back slightly so that he could see Sam better.

"Do you know what she's talking about?" he rasped. Ugh, his throat felt terrible – like he had been screaming.

"You used your ghostly wail."

"Uh-huh." So _that_ was why his throat felt like sandpaper, but it didn't explain why the normally stoic Val was so upset. Hadn't she seen him use it before?

"You were really exhausted by that point," Sam elaborated. Danny continued to stare up at her blankly waiting for his mind to connect the dots – all he got was a dial tone and an out-of-order note. Of all the times for his logic capacities to go AWOHL. This was really frustrating. He tried to get what Sam was hinting at without his reasoning abilities but to no avail. Why couldn't his mind pull stunts like this when he was doing something boring like catching the Box Ghost for the zillionth time?

"You passed out," Sam tried again still ignoring Valerie. "And you had an audience." Ah, Danny _knew_ there was something incredibly significant about this statement. Slowly he raised one hand into his field of vision and stared at it as if it were the most fascinating thing in the world. That was funny… he wasn't wearing a glove and his hand looked more tanned than it should have been in ghost mode…. _Oh_…. His brain finally came back on line.

"Shit," he mumbled and let his hand fall back down to his side again.

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up," Sam sighed.

"How many people?"

"The entire school, more or less."

"News crew?"

"Not here yet."

"WILL YOU STOP IGNORING ME?!?" Oops! He'd forgotten about Valerie. He grinned up at the irate ghost huntress sheepishly.

"Uh, what was the question again?" Her face turned an interesting shade of red that would have matched the ghost hunting suit she normally wore. Ooo, Valerie looked really scary when she was this mad and frustrated plus she still had an ecto gun aimed at his head.

"Who the _hell_ are you?!? Fenton or Phantom? For that matter, _what _the hell are you?!?"

Danny let out a small sigh and winced as he accidentally caused his left shoulder to shift slightly. (He made a mental note to shake Skulker's current thermos extra hard before he returned the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter to the Ghost Zone.) Well, his secret was already blown and the reality gauntlet had been destroyed so he couldn't change time… he was kinda out of options here other than 'fess up.' Idly he wondered if Valerie's face was capable of turning any darker shades of red.

"Who am I? Uh… well… both. And as for _what_ I am, I'm a half ghost or – as other ghosts put it – a halfa."

Instead of turning redder, Valerie's face went almost white – quite a feat considering Val's normal skin tone was a deep, milk chocolate brown. The ecto gun began shaking even more violently in her fingers.

"Bu-but how- that- it's-" she stuttered, suddenly at an unusual loss for words. "How can you be half dead? That's not possible!" Danny shrugged his right shoulder. He wished that the pounding in his head would stop so that he could think more clearly. It would make this whole conversation a _lot _easier for him to follow. His train of thought was once more interrupted, this time by the squealing of tires. Ah, the news crew had arrived. The halfa had been wondering when they would show up.

--

Jazz lay on the couch in the Fenton's family room temporarily making do with being bored. Of all the times to get sick, it had to be when she was at home visiting her family. Danny was at school right now but she was still getting to spend time with her parents at the moment. Despite the fact that her family drove her nuts, Jazz still missed them while she was at university working on her psychology degree. Besides which she still worried about Danny.

With a groan, she rolled so that she was facing the back of the couch instead of the television. Why, _why_ did her mom and dad have to have everything they did pertain to ghosts? Including the specials they watched on TV? They would sit there and criticize and critic the information in the program too, which was what they were doing now. The show was called _The Truth About the Paranormal_ or something like that and the host had obviously no _clue_ what he was talking about. Closing her eyes, the eldest Fenton sibling was just about to drift off to sleep when the sudden change of the music and announcer on the television startled her back to full alertness. She rolled over to see what was going on.

"_We interrupt your normal programming to bring you this breaking news! Danny Phantom, ghost boy and local hero of Amity Park, was reveled, less than a quarter of an hour ago, to be more than he seems. During a normal battle with a regularly reoccurring ghost believed to be called 'Skulker' near the Casper High outdoor cafeteria not only did students and staff members witness a startlingly strong, never-before-seen power but also witnessed an event which may change the way we view the paranormal… forever. This footage was taken by a student as the event occurred._"

Jazz was sitting straight up now, all her thoughts of her current bout of flu completely obliterated. Her parents were leaning forward eagerly to find out this latest piece of information on the ghost boy. All but chewing on her fingernails with anxiety, Jazz watched the grainy image of the ghost fight on screen, praying and hoping against hope that Danny hadn't somehow transformed during this battle but her prayers were not answered. She watched in horror as Danny slumped back into Sam and after a moment the pair of all too familiar white-blue rings formed around her brother's waist. Next to her Jack and Maddie gasped in shock as the transformation ended. The newscaster appeared once more on the screen.

"_Danny Fenton, son of ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton and a senior at Casper High, has been identified as Phantom's second identity._" Danny's most resent school picture appeared on the screen just over the female newscaster's right shoulder."_Now the question stands, what is Danny Phantom? Is he a ghost? Is he human? Or is he, possibly, something in between? Trying to answer that question right now is Lance Thunder who is out on scene. So, Lance, what's going on out there?_"


End file.
